Plainsfierians
The Plainsfierians are a race of now homeless and partially nomadic shapeshifters, originally coming from Interior of the Crux-Scutum arm of the galaxy and have moved on to colonise the Norma arm and elements of the Sagittarius Arm. Background The Plainsfierians are often credited as perhaps the pinnacle of evolution or as the very highest of their natural predators, being the veritable 'wolf in sheep's clothing'. They are capable of shape shifting, using subtle changes and mass reproduction of cells and their DNA structure to change themselves, ranging from more simple changes in pigmentation of their body to, in more extreme examples, changing their bone, muscle and skin structure to resemble a different creature, though similar in mass. The ability to change their genes is carried out by absorbing those of others. Within their mouths there is a special gland that when they eat the tissue of a once living creature or drink the blood of one, they can absorb the DNA. The DNA is stored within massed DNA coils in a section of their brain, the so called 'library of DNA'. These are all held in check by lac operons, with them only being activated with a conscious or sub-conscious thought. Once the lac operons for a specific gene are unlocked they undergo synthesis, creating a copy of that gene which is then taken by the 'blue blood cells' (BBC), so called because of their light blue colour, caused by a metallopprotien bond, much like haemogolbin in red blood cells. These large and advance cells transport the DNA to their target sites and release them into the cell. The target cells immediately 'locks down' the gene coding for that feature and then implants the new gene and it immediately begins to display that function. These are 'subtle' changes, such as skin pigment, colour of their eyes, hairs etc. In this way, Blue Blood Cells act similarly to viral vectors for gene therapy. 'Excessive' changes are usually to muscle or bone masses and created by the secondary function of blue blood cells. However, they also are capable of pluripotent stems cells, which are responsible for the tremendous growth and healing factors of Plainsfierians. A 'parent' cell takes in the required genes and then produces pluripotent stem cells, reproducing rapidly and then copying the parent cell, effectively creating a massive growth spurt. While subtle changes can take a few seconds or minutes, excessive can take place in minutes or days, depending on what they are changing. Some such examples of excessive changes are things such as growing spines or horns as defensive or offensive natures or changing themselves to resemble another creature entirely. These excessive growth cells are literal time bombs as they literally self destruct when they wish to change back, being quickly destroyed and broken down in the body for useful materials During these excessive changes the Plainsfierian in question must absorb massive amounts of food to fuel the bodies massive changes. Thanks to these features, many genetic disorders, cancers and tumours simply don't exist within their race. They are also extremely long lived, being up to a millenia old, though their mental condition deteriorates past eight hundred years old, in the 'downwards spiral' of their life span. Many features that are continually absorbed in their race are based onto their children, creating a sort of tribal polymorphism, where the individual clans, over time, have began to express more and more of the same, similar features. These features can be inherited from one of their parents, resulting in them being 'of that clan'. Their internal organ make up is also highly unusual. It is extremely similar to the human organ make up but what is unusual is the quantity. Many organs have multiple copies, with four lungs, two separately looped intestines, four kidneys, two linked hearts, an enlarged liver and twice the amount of glands as a normal human. Along with that, due to repeated absorption of animals they have massively improved eye sight, hearing, scent and increased muscle density and bone strength over humans. Without any 'editing' the Plainsfierians can be best described as human like, of similar heights and masses, though the two tell tale features that set them apart are more unnatural colouration in the skin, eyes and hair and their ears, which are pointed at the tips. Their breeding time is extremely prodigious, being as much as 1 year 9 months to two years. This is because much of the fetal development time is devoted to the sorting, arrangement and inheritance of the parent's features. Their genetic legacy is largely passed on, with the majority of the parents DNA being passed on. However, the child usually inherits more of their mothers DNA, so often they will join their mother's clan, or claim allegiance to that clan. History Much of the Plainsfierian history has been lost to time and destruction, but what is known is that their world was once graced by the Forerunners; in fact, the one relic on Plainsfier, their home world, was a crashed Forerunner cruiser. From this, they developed at a similar pace to the covenant, developing energy weapons, faster than light travel and shielding, though they were more innovative, but still relied on Forerunner technology. What is known is they had been wracked by a violent and bloodied nuclear civil war before hand and though their home world was not tarnished by this, many of the Tribes, parring two, had been reduced to shadows of their former selves. Had this not happened, they may of had a chance of fending off the Covenant, who upon first contact and seeing their abilities and bastardization of forerunner technology, declared them heresy and must be destroyed. They swept through their colonies, glassing as they went, while the two most powerful tribes, the Draco and the Telal refused to act, because of the mess the other tribes had caused. However, when they tried to intervene and generate peace talks, their peace envoy was destroyed. Only then did they realize what exactly was going on. With a handful of colonies left and a fraction of the tribes remaining, they devised a last plan to ensure the survival of their race. The Telal fleet, the largest on Plainsfier space and unblemished by the war, was to retreat. Though they had no territory left, they did have one hope: the 'intended' destination of the Forerunner cruiser that had long ago crashed on their world. From what they understood of the Forerunner, it was some kind of safe haven or base, so they sent them onwards while the Draco fleet, the second largest, created a diversion, a near suicidal frontal assault on the Covenant armada. During this, the plan to save the other tribes went into motion. Using genetic material of captured Covenant soldiers, they turned into the varying races of the Covenant and hid upon a captured cruiser, 'joining' the armada. The Dragonite fleet, using superior tactics, deceit and sheer tenacity bought enough time for the Telal to escape and the remaining Plainsfierians to hide. Though reduced to near extinction, the Draco did their task before joining their comrades in hiding themselves. For 400 years they hid in Covenant society, hiding as workers, merchants and business men, rather not letting them reveal themselves through war. Through out this they founded many 'Covenant' colonies that were carefully orchestrated to be havens for the Plainsfierians. It wasn't until five years after the Human-Covenant War did they reveal themselves. Though unable to halt the war, they did do little things here and their, like sabotage, leaking information or other deceitful tactics. When they revealed themselves the Sangheili were at first shocked but also welcomed them with open arms, wishing to repent for their sins against them. They became the third major race of the AUR and soon found a position as chief spies of the AUR. They, as a gift, recieved many of the hulks of their destroyed ships, engineers, their old worlds, now reseeded and their independence from the Sangheili. Unfortunately, unknown to many, their small but regrowing empire was directly in the path of one of the oncoming Necros invasion fleets. Culture The Plainsfierian's culture is fragmented and relatively unknown to themselves at best: with the destruction of their homes and cities, little remains apart from word of mouth. While at one point the Plainsfier race had an overarching form of culture, for the most part all examples of this were wiped out in the Fall. The individual cultures of the Plainsfierians live on through their clans, each one surprisingly different from the others. The old religion was very similar to the primitive mythologies of Humanity, a polytheistic religion similar to Hinduism in format. Aside from the Thirteen Patrons - the supposed progenitors of the thirteen clans - there was a pantheon of lesser gods, including Odjn the Destroyer, Soturifu the Warrior, Aerith the Maiden, and many others. The Union of the Twelve Tribes The clans are the polymorphic groups that make up the Plainsfierans, once upon a time each one inantly holding several features, though these are not always expressed all the time. Draco Clan The Draco clan are signified by features such as horns and spines and reptilian wings, though scales are sometimes present but not always. In history these were always the 'leader' clan, being the most skilled at war and shape shifting, seeing positions as officers, spies or spec ops. In the final days of the war they nearly destroyed themselves in a sacrificial diversion attack. Their primary colony is Orcus Clan Orcus clan are the easily the most brutish of the clans, being attributed with starting the civil war. Their defining features are larger, bull like horns, leathery skin, manes of thick hair and larger muscle and bone structures. Their primary colony is Armado Clan The Armado clan is the clan or merchants and builders, being the architects of both the Plainsfier economy and their cities. Their usual features are tough, bony plates or shells. Their primary colony is Tsubasa Clan The Tsubasa clan, one of more aloof clans, has long had a position as neutrals, though a surprise attack to attempt to destroy the Orcus nuclear arsenal in the opening days of the war dragged them into it. Their feature is a pair of wings which are usually present, though rarely large enough to support actual, prolonged flight. Few individuals that can fly are highly revered. They also have surprisingly brittle bones compared to both humans and other Plansfier clans. Their primary colony is Wyndia. Woren Clan The Woren tribe, at some point in their history, devoured the genetic material of a feline species, resulting in those features being displayed through cat like ears, tails or claws, occasionally individuals have fur and thoroughly heightened senses of smell and balance. Long seen as the most primitive tribe, they have long had a alliance with the Tsubasa clan. Despite this they also have a reputation as thieves. Their primary colony is Okami Clan Okami is a similar tribe to the Woren, having developed from canine animals. They have had a long history of conflict with the Woren but also a long history of co-operation. During the civil war they were actually allied with the Woren despite the long history of conflict. Vesper Clan Having absorbed the genetic material of bat like creatures, the Vesper clan have developed numerous new features. Living in the almost continual darkness of their world, Nocturne, they have developed ultrasound visualization methods and a high tolerance for the dark. Custode Clan The Custode clan are a highly defensive clan with the most vivid differences from other clans. They have continued to phase out their base features and now resemble a mythical dragon crossed with a bird like creature. They have flightless limbs, bony beaks, relatively soft horns, flightless wings, digigrade legs, toughened claws and increased muscle mass and density. They are known as valiant defenders and possess blind faith to their clan leaders, which resulted in a mad clan leader attempting to destroy the Draco clan during the war. Their home world is Imori Clan The Imori have absorbed the genetic code of amphibian creatures, both mammalian and reptilian, that has given them a number of genetic changes, including blubber stores, occasionally moist, lizard like skin, webbed hands and feet, and gills. Their home world is Naga Clan The Naga clan are, in their most usual form, one of the more extreme polymorphs, with their legs having been fused into a snake-like tail. Along with this, they possess toxic saliva glands, infrared sensor pits in their face, and an organ similar to the Jacobson's Organ. Their home world is Caer Lisko Clan Lisko have evolved with the help of lizard creatures such as geckos and chameleons. They possess millions of fine hair on their hands and feet that let them climb vertical surfaces of varying kinds and chameleon-like skin cells that can change their colour at a thought, though its a highly imperfect method of camouflage. Their home world is Sune Clan The Sune clan, closely related to the Okami clan, have developed from lesser cannines, similar to earth's foxes. Though generally more solitary and smaller than their Okami cousins, they sport greater sense of hearing and superior agility along with an adaptability not as readily seen in other clans, being able to go from arctic to desert environments with ease. Their primary home world is Telal Clan Telal was a unique clan as their very base genetic make up had differed from the others. While the others were slow breeders the Telal had a much faster breeding time, though not all parent traits are based on. Of course, these can be reacquired through blood sharing or ingesting organic matter later on. By default, the common genetic traits are an abundance of defensive and offensive spines that are mostly kept under the skin for concealment, tough bones, high muscle density, a solid rib cage with toughened cartilage plates covering it, numerous sensory adaptations and an increased production of red blood cells. They are neutral peace keepers in the war, being aligned and often under command of the Draco clan, fellow peace keepers. At the last battle of the Plainsfier-Covenant War they disappeared into the 'deep core' and have never reappeared. Their primary colony was Technology For the most part, the Plainsfierians use USR technology, with much of the newest weapons and other equipment actually having been designed in part by the Plainsfierians. They usually have 'made to order' warships and a number of weapons and vehicles unique to them. They use the Type-X Modifiable Weapon System, the Type-X Gravity Manipulation System and the Tyrant class Mobile Assault Unit. Military The Plainsfier military relies on two things to ensure victory. Absolute control of all information on the battlefield and individual superiority. Though lesser than any other armed force, each soldier specialises in being individually superior to any of the enemies main line infantry and being extremely stealth. Almost every infantry man, vehicles from light recon to heavy tanks and the majority of light warships are stealth warships, with ECM, stealth resistant features and phased array optics. This allows the projection of a 3-D hologram of the background, creating a seamless visual of the background. Their body armour for both infantry and armour vehicles use layers of polymer bound light weight cermaics than shatter opposing projectiles and absorb the heat of energy weapons, with small amounts slagging off as a ablative defence, layers of self contained liquid nanocrystals to protect from spalling along with RADAR resistant materials, EM and thermal masking materials and all the best communication and visual assitance gear possible. Air vehicles are similarly protected and equipped. Smaller ships, up to light cruiser classification can to be rendered near invsisble to all tracking systems but larger ships can only be thermally and electromagnetically masked. However, their larger warships are mighty leviathans of the stars, being some of the most robust warships in the galaxy. With their superior understanding of forerunner technology they possess ships only second to Forerunner vessels, with potent energy shields and weapons many times stronger than ships of similar tonnage. Most large ships are uniquely made warships, each one being the labour of a clans work. Each clan has individual armed forces with use of standardised equipment. Much of the armour is custom made to the user, with them looking more like images of baroque fantasy than real, top of the line, armour. The Plainsfier military also has a number of 'specially made' combat teams. Ranging from sizes of 1000 to teams of merely 2, these 'Sentinel Units' are Plainsfier's special forces, doing missions considered even too dangerous for their normal forces, a special force in their own right. Each force is unique, with armour and weapons crafted by artisan collectives specifically for them. Further more, each unit has a 'handler'. While the Sentinel Unit may be commanded by commanders higher in the command chain, their handler, a largely secretive person, handles all battlefield command, support and direction, often from a frighteningly close distance, though well hidden. Individually, the Sentinel units are some of the best equipped, well trained and dangerous soldiers in the galaxy, their only equals were the SPARTANS, the Sangheili Special Warfare Group and the Machina GEARS. Noted Plainsfierians *Aceon DeRagen *Myrika Harnel *Draekus Damon *Janus Droln *Ananta Seru Systems Trivia *The various clans of the Plainsfierians were inspired by the Japanese game series Breath of Fire *Each clan's name is a play on either the English or Japanese word for what animal they are like; an explanatory list follows: **Draco = Dragon (also Draconian, Draconic, Drake) **Orcus = **Armado = Armadillo **Tsubasa = **Woren = **Okami = Wolf **Vesper = **Custode = **Imori = **Naga = Naga, a half-human, half-snake **Lisko = **Sune = Kitsune, a mythical nine-tailed fox **Telal =